


Desecration of the Minds

by LeastExpected_Archivist



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-02-04
Updated: 2002-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:41:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25371064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeastExpected_Archivist/pseuds/LeastExpected_Archivist
Summary: by GamiUmmm. . . you have to pretend that Legolas had not met Aragorn prior to the council of elrond.
Kudos: 2
Collections: Least Expected





	Desecration of the Minds

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Amy Fortuna, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Least Expected](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Least_Expected), which has been offline since 2002. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in August 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on the [Least Expected collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/leastexpected/profile).
> 
> Disclaimer: This stuff belongs to Tolkien, not me, 'cause if it did, I would not be living off of ramen.
> 
> Feedback: definitly.
> 
> Story Notes: Arwen is in it, 2, but not part of the romance. . .
> 
> A/N: Okay, I've written slash before, but this is my first work in Tolkien's world, so bear with me here.

Desecration of the Minds

* * *

*Three rings for Elven-Kings under the sky Seven for Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die  
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne In the Land of Mordor where shadows lie*

* * *

*One Ring to rule them all,  
One ring to find them,  
One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.*

* * *

The ring. It is ironic, how we suffer so much worry and fear over a thing so small. I am an elf. I have seen things both frightening and sad in the time I have lived in Middle-earth, but this is the worst. Of course, I had heard of the ring many times before now, but it was always frightened whispers, as if people were afraid to remember the past, thousands of years ago. Before now, I really had never given it much thought. Now it is almost constantly on my mind. Well, it was, until I met _him_.

* * *

Legolas Greenleaf of Mirkwood had just arrived in Rivendell and was being led to his rooms in which he was to stay. As he walked, he looked around him, taking in every detail. He did not carry very many things aside from his bow and arrows. He preferred to travel light. He knew what he was here for, he had come to give grave news from his father to Elrond. The council was going to start in less than an hour and he had to gather his thoughts and get ready. The man was extremely familiar, although Legolas couldn't place him. He was beautiful, in an exotic sort of way. Nothing close to the beauty of an elf, to be sure, but beautiful in a dangerous sort of way. His eyes surveyed everyone and everything without seeming to move at all. To the untrained eye, it might have looked like nothing more than a glance, or nothing at all, but Legolas did not have untrained eyes. He knew better. He knew that the man was carefully studying everyone there. But who was he? He sure looked familiar. That's right. He's Aragorn, son of Arathorn, heir to Isildur, returned king of Gondor, and chief of the Dunedane of the North. Legolas mentally slapped himself for forgetting. If Aragorn ever noticed him staring, he never showed a visible sign of it. He now seemed to be listening intently to Elrond and Gandalf as they recounted all that had happened since Frodo had left the Shire. Legolas figured that he probably should be listening, but he couldn't take his eyes off the man.

> "--And I do not doubt that Gollum was allowed to leave Mordor on some evil errand." Elrond finished, and looked at Legolas expectantly, as if he already knew what Legolas was going to say. In fact, Legolas reasoned, he probably did. Legolas realized that it was his turn to speak, and stood up with a dismayed cry. Then, he spoke of how Gollum had escaped the Elves of Mirkwood and how his father had sent him to report it to the council. It was hard to get through the whole story with the whole council staring at him so intently, most of all, though, Aragorn was looking at him with an intensity unmatched my any others there, save possibly Gandalf. He felt as though he was naked and Aragorn could see right through him and read exactly what he was thinking like a book. He almost shuddered at that thought. He had been thinking some thoughts that he would rather remain secret. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally finished what he had to say and sat back down in his seat gratefully. He glanced at the grim faces of the council, his eyes lingering a little longer on Aragorn before forcing them to transfer to Elrond for the rest of the council.  
>  It had been four days since the Council of Elrond had met and Legolas had not seen much of Aragorn since then. He knew that they had both been chosen to accompany Frodo, the ring bearer, on his quest to Mordor. On the night of that fourth day, Legolas found himself wandering down a hall that he had never been down before. He looked around, confused, for the moment, as to where he was, then started walking again. As he was walking, something caught his eye. In a dark corner, he saw a small leather booklet. It was only about 5 inches tall and 2 1/2 inches wide. It had no visible title on it, and was bound with a leather strap of some sort. Legolas was puzzled, but curious. Looking around to make sure that no one was watching, he picked up the little book and put it in his pocket, then headed towards his room again. 

* * *

Aragorn was frantic! If that book found it's way into someone's hands. . . he shuddered to think about it. Worse by far, if that someone was _him_ , the one whom he had kept his eyes on since the council of Elrond four days ago. . . This time a visible tremor ran through his whole body. He had known from the start that it was a stupid thing to do, writing out all of his innermost feelings and thoughts onto paper where anybody could look at it if he was careless. But, Arwen had told him that it would help with anything that went wrong, and it had. Until now. Now he was just wishing he had never done it. He had, of course, trusted her . She was the only person he felt was trustworthy in this whole place. Even if she had broken his heart, they had still stayed friends. And, of course, it had helped at first. . . He had never even thought that he might lose it. He didn't associate himself with the word 'carelessness'. He desperately wished that, at least, he had not put his name in it. He cursed himself wildly, both allowed and inside his head.

* * *

When Legolas reached his room, he locked the door and took the little book out of his pocket. He turned it over in his hands a few times before uniting the leather strap and opening the book. On the front, in an untidy scrawl, there said simply: _The contents of this book are extremely personal and secret. Whomever seeks to earn or keep my trust, and stay away from my wrath, continuing is not the best way to go about doing it._ _Signed, Aragorn, Son of Arathorn, King of Gondor and chief of the Dunedane of the North._ Legolas almost smiled, it was so like Aragorn. Then he really did frown. Since when had he come to know what was and wasn't like Aragorn?! Legolas continued reading the book, not even shaken by the opening statements. His curiosity had already gotten far ahead of him. He skimmed through the first thirty pages or so, not seeing much of interest (mostly stuff about the ring and the halflings), until he caught sight of his name. At first he dismissed it, thinking that Aragorn must of only been listing the people that were to come with and protect Frodo as the Fellowship of the Ring. He was about to turn to the next page when rethought that, and his curiosity got the better of him. He turned back, and looked at the beginning of the entry. Here is what it said, in the same untidy scrawl as before: *The Council of Elrond was long and tedious, but really quite interesting. Or at least, the parts of it I was paying attention to were. I was a bit. . . distracted, I suppose. There were several elves there, obviously since Rivendell is an elf-land, of course, but one of them in particular caught my eye. He was staring at he the whole time.* (at this, Legolas blushed. So he had noticed.) *I cannot guess why, but his gaze was most intriguing. His name was Legolas, son of Thranduil King of Mirkwood. He had long golden hair (as is the way of a lot of elves) and a voice like smooth silk. He seemed to be studying me intently, like a wolf looking at his dinner, and his gaze disturbed me vaguely, but he was beautiful. I hope to see more of his as time goes on.* The passage went on to talk about all that that Elrond had said, and Legolas skimmed over that part, disinterested but slightly red-faced, before it concluded. He searched for other parts that mentioned him, and it wasn't long before he found them. It seemed that Aragorn was having to deal with a lot of inner conflicts, because he had been brought up to think that homosexuality was wrong, and yet he was slowly falling in love with another man (or, as it was, elf, but a male elf, nonetheless). Legolas suddenly had this warm feeling that everything was going to be all right. He should of known that nothing was ever that easy. Then, with a start, he finally realized that he was intruding on someone's private thoughts. He slammed the book shut and quickly retied the strap around it. Then, after making sure that everything was the way it had been, he left in search of Aragorn. It wasn't really all that hard to find the man. However, it looked as though he was franticly searching for something. Of course, Legolas reasoned, he probably was. The hand that held the little book trembled a tiny bit. "Ummm. . ." Legolas said, but paused when he saw that he had failed to make himself noticed. Now, Aragorn was searching some nearby trashcans. Legolas suddenly felt really, really stupid. "Aragorn?" he asked timidly, wishing that he was anywhere but where he was, and that the tremor in his voice would go away. Finally, Aragorn turned around, but still did not stop his search. "What?" he snapped. Legolas almost flinched at his harsh tone. "Is this yours?" he asked, holding out the little leather book. He desperately wished that his hands would stop shaking. They seemed to get worse instead. Slowly, Aragorn lifted his hand, and his face was deathly pale. He snatched the book away from Legolas with such force that he had to fight to keep from instinctively taking a step back. Aragorn looked from Legolas to the book several times, and then did something that Legolas did not expect n a million years. He slapped him. Legolas's head snapped back with the force, and he felt his heart shatter into a million pieces, then silently cursed his weakness over this man. He had had worse injuries! But this one felt more painful than all of those put together. There was no one else in the halls at that moment, and for that Legolas was grateful. He ran back to his room after what seemed like an eternity of standing there. Of waiting. He had not moved until long after Aragorn had gone. He wanted to cry desperately, but the tears would not come. It had been so long since tears had last fallen from his eyes. How could he feel so deeply about a man whom he had met not a week before?(1) Surely, even if Aragorn had liked him, he must feel nothing for him now. He lay on his bed, put his head in his arms, and wept for all he was worth, but no tears came.

* * *

He saw. Of all the people, men and elves, in Rivendell, it had to be the pretty elf. Aragorn ran down the hall, cursing his miserable luck and just plain not looking where he was going. Because of this, he ran straight into Arwen, who was looking for him anyway.

"Master Ranger," she said softly, not looking the least bit shocked at having his practically run her down in such a state. "Where are you going? What is wrong?" It was disturbingly obvious that she knew exactly what was wrong, Arwen had a way of finding these things out, even seconds after they happened. Aragorn simply shook his head, not trusting himself to speak, sure that if he did, it would crack. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, her voice was like honey. He used to love that voice. . . worshiped it. . . but that was all in the past now. He had moved on. Aragorn meekly nodded, and she half-dragged him off to her room, where they both sat side by side on the bed. "Now," she said, "what's wrong? Tell me, maybe I can help." He sobbed. For him, tears had no trouble coming. To anyone else, it would have been an almost frightening sight, but Arwen knew him perhaps better than his own father had, and she had seen him cry like this many times. "You can't help. No one can help now." He cried, bowing his head. "Shhh. . . it always helps to talk about it." She said soothingly. Aragorn finally gave in. "He saw the journal. The one you gave me. I could tell he had read it. The look on his face showed it all, his eyes were like windows. . ." at this point he dissolved into tears once more. She rubbed his back and whispered soothing words into the darkness, not pushing him to continue, but letting him know he was welcome to continue. Finally, the sobs subsided. "That's not the worst, though." He continued, still shaking, "The worst is when he gave it back to me, and. . . When I saw him with it, I-I slapped him. Hard, too. He looked so shocked, and even devastated. For someone as old as he is, I mean, being an elf and all, he does not hide his emotions well. He just stood there, with that look painted all over his face, staring at the wall. When I left, he was still there." Even Arwen had to looked shocked at this. It was beyond what she had expected. All she could do was hold him until he stopped crying. She felt tears pricking her own eyes in face of his misery. She loved him still, and that was why she had had to let him go. She had seen him checking out other males, even if unconsciously, and it had broken her heart to realize that he was gay. He had just been mistaking deep friendship and denial for love. She had to let him go. Now, even though it was hard, she still had to support him. She had seen the elf, Legolas, that Aragorn was infatuated with, and had seen the way that the elf looked at Aragorn, and she understood that the feeling was mutual. While trying to comfort Aragorn, Arwen formed many plans in her mind of how to get him and Legolas together, each of them for strange and improbable than the last. She almost grinned for a moment. This was going to be fun.


End file.
